The invention relates to the scanning, sorting and handling of magazines, periodicals, paperback books, or the like, especially those which are provided with the Universal Products Code (U.P.C.) bar code.
It is estimated that billions of magazines are shipped from distributors to retailers each week, approximately 40% of which are returned to the distributor for credit or other disposition. Sorting, arranging, counting, and totalling credits to retailers for these magazines, which come in random sizes and thicknesses and have different dates of publication, prices, etc. are tasks which have presented serious problems and are expensive to carry out. Recently, many magazines have been provided with markings known as the Universal Products Code (U.P.C.) bar code which are for the primary purpose of being scanned at the checkout counters of supermarkets or other retailers. Typically, the U.P.C. Bar Code for a magazine or other publication will indicate the publisher, title, and date of publication in code form. A conventional scanner such as one manufactured by Acroscan Corp. of Warren, Michigan will convert this code for purposes of entry into a computer.